The present invention relates to an improved terminating and grounding strain release clamp assembly, sometimes called a xe2x80x9cbackshellxe2x80x9d, for electrical shielded cables and the like. Prior art such as usage of mechanical band dispersed from a banding tool as the means for joint connection between the xe2x80x9cbackshellxe2x80x9d and terminated electrical cable shields, individual and/or overall, is error-prone, tedious, cumbersome and non-repairable assembly.
In some known application, such as today""s fly-by-wire and/or HIRF configured airplane, an almost absolute minimum amount of EMI presence is critical to the airplane system performance. Simply stated, the electrical cable and/or wire shield grounding shall be continuous and free of contamination. The prior art banding assembly is totally impacted by the assembler disadvantage of not having enough xe2x80x9chandsxe2x80x9d to locate and position individual and/or overall cable shields while applying the mechanical band and then operating the banding tool. The prior art banding assembly almost consistently produced an unacceptable ground shield terminations such as high resistance, misalignment and improper location of the mechanical band, overlapping cable shield braids, loose mechanical band, etc. Another resultant problem is the susceptibility to environmental contamination. For example, when the cable shield is of nickel plating and the mechanical band is stainless steel and the termination platform on the backshell adapter is cadmium plated, galvanic action amongst different metals produces corrosion. Another problem associated with the prior art banding assembly is the inherent non-repairable shield termination which increases the airline""s cost of ownership.
The present invention also eliminates the need for a tool and the user friendly assembly significantly improves the EMI performance, greatly reduces assembly cost, increases reliability and allows maintainability.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome the aforementioned and other deficiencies and disadvantages of the prior art.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a strain relief adapter female member having a configured inner surface which engages the outer surface of a split compression ring causing a forceful engagement on the compression ring with a backshell adapter male member and the backshell adapter having a slotted termination platform for cable shields.
A further object of the present invention is to utilize a conductive wrap-around band to collect, position, locate cable shields, individual and overall, onto the termination platform of the backshell adapter.
A still further object of the present invention is the coupling of the female and male component member to produce an electrical joint connection caused by the split compression ring closing onto the termination platform.
Yet another object of the invention is to eliminate galvanic action when the assembly has incompatible metals by using a wrap-around band as a barrier between metals.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a terminating and grounding strain relief clamp assembly which is tool free to assemble, reworkable and maintainable. The present invention provides a terminating and grounding strain release clamp assembly or xe2x80x9cbackshellxe2x80x9d that comprises an interfitting metallic shell, housing and coupling parts such as a split compression ring and a metallic wrap-around band which when all joined together form an electrical conductive path with the cable shields to greatly reduced the presence of electromagnetic interference (EMI).